Magic and the Dragon
by Ima Super Mute Ant
Summary: Wufei is unhappy with his life after the war, he's looking for a way out when he receives a letter of invitation from Hogwarts, paid in full by his former lover. Harry Potter crossover,set in 6th year AU, 5xRemus, past 5x13, background 1x2, 3x4, DMxHP
1. Prologue

This is only the prologue to "Magic and the Dragon" (cheesy title, I know) so it's a bit shorter than I'm hoping the real chapters are going to be… I don't have a beta so if anyone is interested please please email me. The fic will be 5xRemus, with past 13x5 (as is obvious in the content of this prologue).

The original fic starts with a lemon, which is archived on gundam-wing-fanfiction . net but I took it off of this version for ff . net but I suggest you go read it there because of the lemon and because the formatting is better

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/thoughts/

"speaking"

radio

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Magic and the Dragon: Prologue

Before he had begun his career as a gundam pilot, Chang Wufei had considered himself something of a scholar on the subject of justice. He could rant and rave on the unethical treatment of Chinese colonists in AC 95, on the atrocities of the current earth alliance, on the unjust practices of the military force known as OZ.

But Wufei was also an authority on another facet of the human condition, an emotion that had been taking up more and more of his spare time.

Chang Wufei was becoming an expert on shame

Wufei could feel the heavy weight of guilt on his chest as he hid his gundam in some dense foliage and made his way towards the looming Oz stronghold to the east. Wufei was in full mission mode, his steps silent and his movements direct, there would be no mistakes.

This is 02 to 05… copy? The radio transmitter in Wufei's ear crackled,

This is 02 to 05, where are you man? Copy? Anything?

Keeping an eye out for OZ security guards, he pulled himself up onto a drainpipe and climbed, hand over hand, to the roof of the monstrous concrete building. Where he slipped through a convenient utility entrance. OZ almost always failed to put alarms on their less than obvious entryways, Wufei supposed that was why he could continue to sneak in time after time.

This is 04 to 05... We heard you had no mission assignment at this time. Do you copy?

There was a young soldier, infantry judging by the color of his uniform, loitering in the hallway just beyond Wufei's entry point, he was smoking and chattering on a cell phone.

"I told you I don't want to talk to him! I said I… Hi dad!"

/Idiot rookies! / Wufei thought, as he tucked himself up against the wall to wait out the boy's conversation.

It was quite a wait, but soon enough the young man ended his call and turned to the doorway, not noticing as Wufei slipped past him in the dim lighting.

It was easy from there for Wufei to find his way into the building's ventilation system. Wufei crawled through the cramped space quickly and efficiently, pausing every once in a while to refer to a blueprint. The last thing the young pilot wanted was to land in the officer's canteen.

This is 01. Where are you?

Wufei turned his communicator off.

Finally arriving at his destination (and double checking that it was the right place), Wufei carefully removed a downward facing panel of the vent and placed it beside him. He glanced into the room, checking for enemy soldiers, before allowing himself to drop onto the think carpet below.

Wufei felt another twinge of shame as he stowed his gear under the bed and seated himself in the stiff chair at the desk, turning himself to face the door.

/This is an injustice/ he told himself silently, /I have dishonored my allies and my clan… I should leave… I should…/

The door was abruptly thrown open and an elegant (if slightly harried) figure stormed into the room, slamming the door behind him and angrily throwing his long coat over the back of the couch at the other end of the room.

All the shame that had been tormenting Wufei before this man entered the room melted away, leaving a far more agonizing and power emotion in its' wake.

The man turned, finally noticing the gundam pilot seated at his desk. He smiled slowly, all tension falling away from his features, and Wufei found himself returning that smile as he rose from his chair.

"Treize"

"My Dragon." The general of OZ greeted softly, "I've been waiting for you."

Wufei pushed his thought of betrayal and dishonor away as he was embraced by his enemy. Their lips met, gently at first but quickly becoming more passionate.

Treize deftly maneuvered Wufei out of his standard issue flight suit, letting the single article of clothing fall to the floor. Wufei allowed himself to be laid on the bed, silk sheets caressing the backs of his legs.

The smell of roses drifted from the pillows and his lover's hands drifted over his hips. Wufei forgot shame in these moments, he forgot everything except for Treize's eyes, and Treize's lips, and Treize's breath.

"I love you." He whispered into the general's ears, "Wo ai ni."

Treize, for all his extravagant pet names and hedonism, never responded. He never did.

"I love you" Wufei said again, pressing against Treize and kissing his neck softly.

Treize merely smiled.

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Thanks for reading!! this is just the start so please R&R!


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: Ok, so this chapter was supposed to get Wufei all the way to Hogwarts and I didn't get quite that far but I think it worked out ok. As usual it's not beta read so please excuse any blaring mistakes. The next chapter might take a little bit more time but I'll have it up as soon as possible.

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"speaking"

/thoughts/

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Magic and the Dragon: Chapter 1

_Chang Wufei,_

_We are pleased to inform you of your acceptance to Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry, entering into fifth year by post-mortem request of Treize Khushrenada (graduate of the class of AC 189). Attached you will find a list of supplies and prohibited items, please send your response before July 31st. _

_Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonnigal _

_Deputy Headmistress_

Wufei blinked at the page of slightly yellowed parchment he held in front of him, feeling more than a little bewildered.

The magic itself was of little surprise, everyone in his clan had some sort of magical talent that was trained to a certain extent through meditation and regimen, he could perform the few wandless spells that the Change family used for combat training and that was all.

The big shock was that Treize would have thought to include anything about him in his will, much less a full scholarship on the Khushrenada tab.

/Did he care about me enough to want to see me secure after the war, or is this some sort of payment for services rendered?/

Wufei didn't know what to think.

He could fill tears welling up, unbidden, at the thought that Treize might have been planning to manipulate him, or that Treize thought of him as a whore.

Wufei angrily dashed his tears away and threw the letter down on to the coffee table in front of him. Nearly a week earlier and this letter would have been carelessly thrown away.

Today however, Wufei was holding another letter; his letter of resignation to Lady Une of the Preventers.

After the Eve Wars had come to an end, those that had fought for piece or justice or revenge found themselves at loose ends. Wufei, along with Duo and Trowa, had joined the Preventers because he hadn't known what else to do with himself.

His two compatriots had thrown themselves back into the world of battle and subterfuge that they had always known, with just enough hope for themselves and the future to keep themselves from self-destructing.

But Wufei hadn't felt the same righteous anger that had driven him through two wars. Loosing Treize to his own sword, and then loosing Mariemaia (the closest connection he could find to his former lover) to the Earthsphere childcare system. Had left him without the drive to fight.

He could remember Duo walking headquarters just a few days earlier shouting, "I love my job!" at the top of his lungs.

"Typical Maxwell behavior." Wufei had snorted in derision, shuffling papers.

"It's great!" Duo responded, throwing himself onto Wufei's desk and giving his friend a goofy grin.

"Where do I get to blow stuff up at the beginning of the day, and rescue a few puppies after lunch, and then go home to my a sexy piece of man-meat when I'm ready for bed"

Wufei could remember clearly the way that Duo's eyes had shined with his enthusiasm, and Trowa's cheerful chuckle from across the room.

Duo's previously mentioned "man-meat" entered the room at that moment accompanied by a suit-wearing Quatre. Heero caught the tail end of the conversation and took it as a hint to go embrace his braided lover.

Wufei ignored the pang of hurt he felt as he saw the four people he would consider friends, neatly paired up with each other and perfectly happy.

"Mmmmm… Hey there man-meat." Duo had never been one to avoid public displays of affection; he kissed Heero just as enthusiastically in the office as he would in the privacy of their apartment.

"Hello, stupid." Heero had replied with a wry smile that Wufei couldn't have even imagined a year ago. His fingers, stained with various paints and colors, wrapped themselves around Duo's braid in a possessive clutch.

"Look out, you'll never get charcoal out." Trowa warned from where he had risen to greet his own lover.

"Heero! I told you to wash your hands before you touch the hair!" Duo growled in shock, not moving an inch from where Heero was caressing his braid.

Neither Heero nor Quatre had taken the route of the other pilots after the war. While Quatre had taken over leadership of Winner Enterprises, Heero had done the completely unexpected and gone to school. _Art_ school, seriously.

If anyone had told Wufei that he would one day see a paint covered Heero Yuy joking about shampoo he would have told them they were crazy. And then shot them. But that's what the once perfect soldier had chosen to do.

It was on that day, watching his four friends and compatriots joking and laughing and normal and in love, that Wufei realized how much he _hated_ his job.

Being a preventer was not nearly the same as being a gundam pilot, nor was it similar to serving in Mariemaia's army. It wasn't all "blowing stuff up and saving puppies" as Duo so eloquently described. Wufei felt too restrained by the strict supervision of his commanding officers. There was too much liability involved when he went on a mission with a partner he didn't trust. There was _paperwork_.

Wufei hated watching his friends drawing closer to each other and farther apart from him. Making their lives so real and solid and normal while he felt suspended in time, as if waiting for the next enemy attack.

And, more than anything, Wufei hated working under Lady Une. It wasn't the woman's fault that she represented everything he had both loved and despised during the war. That she had taken his lover's child while he was forced to pretend he didn't care. Lady Une was a respectable woman and a strong leader.

Wufei _hated_ her.

On that day, Wufei left the Preventers office and headed to his apartment where he sat down to pen his resignation letter to a woman he couldn't help but despise, and found a inconspicuous parchment envelope sitting on his desk, bearing his name in bright green ink.

Wufei found himself on a plane to London a few months later with fewer belongings in his single duffle than he had traveled with during the war and his grandfather's old wand in the pocket of his coat. It had taken him quite a few weeks to officially leave the Preventers and pack up his small apartment. He didn't have much in the way of possessions, and what little he hadn't sold fit in a single bag.

Just like it had been during the war, Wufei was left with a couple changes of clothes, a few pictures that had survived the destruction of L5, and his old katana. It was almost a liberating experience.

Wufei couldn't help but chuckle to himself as the plane lifted off the runway, /Here I am, a year later and still marching to the beat of Treize's drum/

/Will I ever be free of him?/ Wufei's hand lightly touched the wand in his pocket, a tool that he associated more with Treize than with the man he had inherited it from.

The general had been an excellent wizard, but an even more outstanding pilot and commander, which is how the man had ended up so thoroughly ensconced in muggle politics. Wufei often wondered how the war would have proceeded if Treize had decided to pursue a career in potions.

/It doesn't matter/ he reminded himself, /I'm going for myself, to start a new life./

/This isn't about Treize./ Somewhere in the universe, Wufei imagined, someone was laughing at his lies.

The plane touched down at Heathrow airport in the early afternoon on a completely pleasant day in September, as if to thumb its nose at Wufei's contemplative mood. He gathered his bag and moved as quickly as he could to get off the plane through the crowd of chattering travelers. Wufei found himself longing for the days when he could fly anywhere in the Earthsphere on his own time.

Wufei was greeted at the gate by a giant of a man clutching a bright pink umbrella and holding a sign that bore his name in what appeared to be soot.

The former pilot approached his guide and waited expectantly, but he didn't seem to be paying attention to anything at Wufei's eye level. Wufei cleared his throat a few times but when that got no response he reached up and tugged on the man's sleeve, feeling like nothing more than a small child.

"Huh?" the big man grunted, finally glancing down.

"I am Chang Wufei"

"Oh… Oh!" The giant paused to look at his sign before looking back down (way down) at his charge.

"Righ' sorry. Never been to an airpor' before an' it's got me a mite distracted. Name's Rubeus Hagrid, pleased t' meet ya!"

Wufei decided not to dignify that with an answer, but the large man insisted on giving him a crushing handshake in greeting.

Hagrid was fascinated by the monitor that displayed arrival and departure times, as well as the baggage carousels and the automatic door. He put out that Wufei hadn't checked any bags.

It took Wufei nearly fifteen minutes to convince Hagrid that they really should be leaving, especially since they would be taking the train. The groundskeeper managed to maintain a steady flow of cheerful banter, leaving Wufei free with his own thoughts so long as he remembered to nod every now and then.

They took a cab (quite the experience with a companion the size of three gundam pilots) to Kings Cross.

"I was going to be taken' you to Diagon Ally but the 'eadmaster said you already had a wand and we can get everythin' else on order." Hagrid told him as he led the way through the crowded station. "It's a little late anyway, as the train leaves today."

Wufei grunted a response, following the by a few feet from the entrance to the gate, pretending he wasn't a little bothered by the fact that they happened to walk through a wall in between.

Wufei honestly hadn't even thought of the supplies list that had been included with his letter, and he was beginning to regret it as he saw the other students who crowded the platform. They milled about, some already dressed in the school's robes, with large trunks and cages and chattering family members.

/I will not admit to being intimidated. / Wufei told himself, /I am stronger than these children. /

"It's jus' fine!" Hagrid told him, somehow managing to read his uneasiness, "I'll get you onto a compartment an' the 'eadmaster will meet you at 'ogwarts!"

Wufei snorted at the suggestion that he was unsure (although the crowed of unknown wizarding children was a little daunting) and shouldered his duffle.

"Thank you for you guidance." He said, probably the first thing he had said in hours, giving Hagrid a slight bow before turning towards the Hogwarts express.

If the platform had seemed chaotic, Wufei was completely unprepared for the inside of the train. Children filled the aisles and the compartments, jostling around with heavy luggage and badly executed spells. Wufei ducked into a compartment as quickly as he could, not really looking at which compartment it was.

Three heads turned to stare at him as he slammed the door, muttering curses in a few of his favorite languages. Caught in the gaze of Hogwarts' most inquisitive students Wufei found his expletives trailing off into an awkward silence.

"Ummmm…." Wufei blinked a few times, "Would you mind if I joined you?"

"Sure!" The boy with the glasses said, "Take a seat."

Wufei slid himself into the nearest seat and pushed his bag under the chair beneath him, "ariga- thank you." He was so used to speaking only to his fellow pilots that the habit of speaking in Japanese was hard to break.

"I've never seen you before." The girl probed, "are you a first year?"

"Are you suggesting that I am eleven years old?" Wufei responded coldly.

"Errr… Of course not!" the red head said, "I'm Ron by the way."

"I'm Hermione."

Wufei turned his face to the boy with the glasses, waiting for an introduction that didn't come. "I am Chang Wufei," he said pointedly.

The boy looked at him, as if waiting.

After a few moments of pointed looks, Wufei lost his patience, "What is you're name, boy?"

"You mean you don't know?" Ron asked.

"Of course I don't know! Do I look like a mind reader to you?"

"I…" the boy with the glasses looked both surprised and pleased, an uncommon reaction from people Wufei yelled at. "I'm Harry Potter."

"That wasn't so hard was it?" Wufei growled irritably.

"I guess." Harry responded, "Where did you say you were from again?"

" I didn't say."

Hermione gasped suddenly, "You're not a professor are you?"

"First you think I'm an infant and now you think I'm elderly? I'm not a professor!"

Ron and Hermione seemed to be getting fed up with Wufei's brusque attitude, but Harry was chuckling under his breath. Wufei wasn't sure how he felt about the odd boy, he didn't like to be considered entertainment, but he also wasn't trying to make enemies out of the first people he had met in England. /Treize would have had them wrapped around his fingers by now./

/but Treize isn't here./ Wufei reminded himself, not for the first time.

After a few minutes of verbal sparring, Wufei decided stop remaining purposefully obtuse, he had seen what it had done to Maxwell and he didn't want his new acquaintances to even think about touching his shoes.

"I'm a transfer student." He told them, "From the colonies."

There was a long pause, while the trio thought about his answer, before he was barraged with questions.

"Why are you transferring?"

"Hogwarts doesn't have transfers!"

"Aren't the colonies full of muggles?

"What are the colonies?"

"Ron! You don't know about the colonies?"

"Have you been to outer space?"

"What do you mean outer space?"

Wufei sighed, /this is going to be a long trip/

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As always, please Read and Review! 3


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: This chapter was soooo hard to write. Mostly because I'm so excited for what's going to happen and it bothers me to have to do all this first and also because it deviated greatly from the way I had it on paper and I had to rethink a whole bunch of this chapter. I'm still not happy with it, not happy at all, but at least it's out of the way. Anyway, sorry for the delay and here it is

Thanks for all the reviews and favs They make me happier than a coupon for a 20 dollar whore.

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Chapter 2:

The trip turned out to be exactly as Wufei had expected. Long, uncomfortable, and full of questions. He did his best to avoid questions by glaring at Hermione, who was too busy explaining the concept of space colonization to her friends to notice his ire.

"What do you mean there's no air in space? How do they live up there?"

Wufei felt his teeth grind harder with each passing second.

"Err…." The Potter boy interrupted him from his fuming, "You might want to change soon, we're nearly there."

Wufei jerked away from his thoughts to notice that the other three members of the compartment had changed into their school robes while he wasn't looking. He felt mildly disturbed by the fact that he hadn't noticed, but he felt even more annoyed at himself when he remembered his failure to adequately prepare for the mission— the school year. He hadn't prepared for the school year.

/Right. The war is over/ He told himself, /Life is not a mission./

"I don't have any robes," He admitted, "I didn't have time to shop before the train left."

"Why didn't you have… Ouch! Hermione, I was just asking a question." Ron was quickly silenced by his friend's foot jamming down on his toes.

"That's alright!" Harry told the former pilot with a grin, "You can borrow one of mine."

"I…" Wufei tried to protest.

"Here," Harry said, pulling the robe from his trunk and thrusting it at the new student, "Put it on."

Wufei felt a slight tingle of embarrassment, but he took the robe never the less. He didn't want to stand out any more than he already did, so he slid the robe over his street clothes and attempted to adjust it in a way that felt comfortable.

Wufei was more than angered to realize that Harry was a good four inches taller than him, and even a little bit wider. The robes swamped him, making him look like a small child playing dress-up.

"Let me fix that for you." Hermione interjected, brandishing her wand. Wufei allowed her to magically alter the robes, even though he could feel an embarrassed burn across his cheeks. Wufei found himself cursing his genetics and the ill effects of a life in low gravity that caused him to be so small.

/I wonder what Treize would think of me in this getup./ He thought as Hermione shortened the sleeves.

/He would love it./ a masochistic side of himself reminded him, /He was so very fond of little boys in grown-up clothes./

Wufei attempted to shake the thoughts from his head, /That is not true!/ he thought viciously at himself, despite the doubts that remained (as always) lodged in his mind.

"Well…" Hermione said after a good ten minutes of wand-waving, "This is the best I can do."

"It looks…" Harry blinked, "Adequate?"

"I look like an emaciated six year old." Wufei grumbled.

"You won't trip on it though!" Hermione replied cheerfully.

Wufei considered snarling.

The robe had indeed been shortened enough that Wufei would be able to walking without falling over, but the sleeves were still a little too long, only revealing the tips of his fingers. Nothing could be done with the width of the collar so the robe hung widely around Wufei's neck, occasionally slipping off one shoulder.

"I'm not sure if I look like a child or a woman!" Wufei grumbled again.

"You look fine!"

"I look ill!" Wufei snapped at her.

"Fine! See if I help you again!" Hermione huffed, more than a little offended at the critique of her work and of womankind in general, and stomped out of the compartment just as the train was coming to a stop.

Her friends collapsed into laughter after she left the room, joking in a way that Wufei had never experienced with people his own age.

"Come on Chang!" Ron shouted, jogging down the aisle, "Don't want to miss the feast."

Wufei followed the other boys out of the train, getting his first glimpse of Hogwarts castle behind a drizzle of rain. He managed to suppress any facial expression, though the castle was an awe-inspiring sight.

/I suppose I could get used to living in a place like this. If I must get used to living anywhere./

By the time he had finished surveying the castle and turned his attention to the rest of the students, Wufei's newly found acquaintances were had already climbed aboard one of the numerous carriages, which were hooked up to monstrous horse-like creatures that regarded Wufei with eyes that reminded him of glowing face of his Gundam.

The youngest students were following Hagrid to the boats moored on the side of the lake. Wufei found himself wondering which way to go. He was not a first year, but he might fit into that group for sorting purposes. Still, he was loath to approach the boats and be lumped with the smallest children.

"Mr. Chang?" A wizened voice asked almost directly into his ear, just as he was about to move towards the shore.

Wufei jumped at the sudden proximity of another person, spinning around quickly and barely keeping himself from dropping into a defensive position. The old man who had so easily crept up on him gave a jovial chuckle and extended his gnarled hand.

"I am Albus Dumbledore," the old man told him with a cheerful smile, "Hogwarts is certainly fortunate to have you here with us, I wasn't sure you would decide to come."

"Niether was I." Wufei admitted, as calmly as he could after being so startled, "but I've found myself at loose ends, and I can hardly continue my magical education where it began."

"I was sorry to hear about the L5 colony." Dumbledore said in a way that conveyed condolences but not pity, "your grandfather was a great wizard, and an even greater teacher."

"I am honored to be his grandson." Wufei responded, feeling a good bit better talking about his home colony than he ever had before. Dumbledore's ability to make those around him entirely comfortable was a dangerous skill, one that Wufei reminded himself to remain aware of.

"Well then!" Dumbledore exclaimed with a snap of his fingers, "If you'll just follow me…"

The headmaster made a gesture towards the carriages, where Wufei could see there was a slightly grander and more official looking coach set off to one side. Wufei let go a sign of relief, there would be no boat travel with the infants at least., although the special carriage made him feel more than a little uncomfortable.

As he was tossing his duffle into the carriage, Wufei's attention was once more drawn to the strange creatures that were meant to pull it. They regarded him will coolly glowing eyes, calm, but with a sort of cruel knowledge that felt strangely familiar.

"Did you have thestrals on your colony?" Dumbledore asked him after they had both seated themselves and the carriage had begun its' journey.

"We didn't have any animals, beyond a few rabbits and mice," Wufei responded quietly, "magical or otherwise."

"A shame. Thestrals are amazing creatures, incredibly intelligent and only visible to those who have seen death first hand." Dumbledore chuckled, "much of the wizarding world takes them to be a bad omen, but I find them very friendly and easy to train."

"They are very… regal." Wufei said. He wouldn't admit to being fascinated by the creatures. In a way they reminded him of his gundam.

/Useless sentimentality!/ he reminded himself /a gundam is a machine, and these are just glorified horse./

Dumbledore gave him a wink, "They like you too."

After a few minutes of bumpy road past in silence before they reached the castle entrance and disembarked. From where they had stopped, Wufei could see the upper-class students filing into the grand hall and moving their places at the tables. As far as he could tell the students sorted themselves based upon the color tie they were wearing. He wondered what they did when they forgot to wear a tie.

"If you'll follow me." Dumbledore said, interrupting his musings. The old wizard lead Wufei through the great hall to sit to his left at the head table.

"The students are sorted into houses at the beginning of the feast." Dumbledore explained to him, "After the first years are finished I will introduce you and you will be sorted as well, until then sit up here with me, hmm?"

Wufei felt more than a little put out that he would be paraded in front of the school like a trained monkey or Relena Darlian, but it did separate him from the younger children who were forming a queue in front of the small stool in the center of the great hall. No one would be mistaking him for an eleven year old after this.

Wufei took the short time he had to look at the other witches and wizards seated at the head table with him. Hagrid was seated a few seats down from him and was chatting with a very small man on a booster seat. On Dumbldore's right was a greasy looking man who vaguely reminded him of an OZ jail-guard whose nose he had broken on three separate occasions. On Wufei's left…

…On Wufei's left sat one of the most captivating men he had seen since he had looked Treize Khushrenada down the barrel of a beam cannon. He was too tired looking to be truly beautiful, a little too warn around the edges to be considered truly attractive, but something in this man's eyes reminded Wufei of his fellow pilots, and himself.

"You must be Chang." The man said in greeting. His voice sounded a good bit younger than his gray hairs would imply. Wufei cut down his earlier estimation of the man's age.

"Yes, sir." Wufei replied, feeling oddly tongue-tied. /His eyes are so blue./

"I'm Remus Lupin. I teach defense against the dark arts."

"Remus is returning to us for his second year." Dumbledore interjected with a cheerful grin.

"Hmph." The OZ-like man grumbled. Wufei saw Lupin give a slight wince in response to the snort. There was some sort of tension between the two teachers that Wufei wanted desperately to explore.

"Do you intend to make the students combat ready?" Wufei asked instead, turning his back on the surly man sitting next to the headmaster.

"Normally no," Lupin chuckled, "But given the current political situation it wouldn't be such a bad idea."

"What?" Wufei began, but before he could fully voice his confusion he was prodded to his feet. Apparently the sorting had finished while they were talking, and it was Wufei's turn to be placed.

Dumbledore lead Wufei to the front of the room, standing beside the sorting hat on it's stool. The entire school watched them with the sort of curiosity that comes only in bulk.

"Students!" Dumbledore started his announcement abruptly, clasping a hand on Wufei's suddenly tense shoulders, "This is a year of firsts! A year for new enterprises and new hope."

The old man's eyes were suddenly a good deal sharper and more aware than Wufei had previously seen them, he looked through the crowd as if locking glances with every student there.

"For the first year in quite a while we have a returning Defense teacher, Professor Lupin, who took a leave of absence due to worries over his health, but we've brought him back and the ministry can't do a thing about it."

The hall erupted with noise, almost evenly divided between cheers and hisses.

"Also," Dumbledore continued over the noise, his arms raised like a pop star in front of a screaming crowd, "We have Hogwarts' first ever transfer student, from the space colony L5. Wufei Chang will be moved into sixth year, I do hope you'll make him feel welcome."

Wufei felt the eyes of the entire school, looking him over and whispering amongst themselves. The weight of their gaze distracted him even from the butchering of his name. He tugged on the too-long sleeve of his robe, trying to make himself look even somewhat presentable.

"Chang, if you would." Dumbledore said gesturing towards the stool and the sorting hat.

Wufei cautiously seated himself on the old stool and placed the hat on his head, wishing desperately that he had listened to the song that would tell him what the sorting meant. He had been too busy watching the defense teacher to notice the students.

/Interesting/ a strange voice suddenly spoke into his mind.

/??/ Wufei jumped. They hadn't told him the thing would go into his head!

/A scholar and a warrior, a loyal friend and a traitor, you would be suited for any house./

/Get out of my head!/

/Still, I see your life has changed you, maybe not for the better. I might have placed you in Ravenclaw had you been sorted at the proper age but I see now that it must be…/

"GRYFFENDOR"

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PS. My reasons for putting Wufei in gryffendor:

1) Plot. Harry will be playing a role in this fic and Remus is a hardcore Gryffendor, so I figured it would be easier to have Wufei accessible.

2) Normally I would put Wufei in ravenclaw, I think NERD! Wufei is the cutest thing since cute, but if he were in with the ravens he would probably disappear into the walls of the library and never be seen again and then Remus would never get laid.

3) Changes. Had Wufei been a student at 11 he would have been in Ravenclaw. But the war changed his value systems and his beliefs; he isn't cute nerdy scholar Wufei anymore. Now he's strong fighter JUSTICE! Wufei. Hence the Gryff-ness.

PPS. This turned out a good bit shorter than I wanted it to be… bummer.


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: Yo! I'm back. Y'all thought I was dead didn't you? Nope! Not me. I was just at school and sleepy ^_^ Anyway, now that summers started up there should be way more updates coming your way. As always, I was too lazy for a beta reader so please forgive any mistakes and point out any plot holes.

Thanks also to all the people who reviewed during my hiatus. You rock my socks.

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Chapter 3:

None of the other students spoke to Wufei as they walked the long stairs up to the Gryffendor dormitories. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had engaged him in pleasant smalltalk over dinner (he had somehow managed to avoid their probing personal questions) but at the end of the feast they had disappeared in the crush of students headed towards their beds.

The moving portraits on the walls managed to distract Wufei from his thoughts, a few of them nodding at him or whispering to each other as the new students went by.

L5, while being a predominantly magical settlement, had never had moving artwork of any kind and Wufei found it more than fascinating. More than once Wufei stopped to engaged a particularly interesting portrait in conversation only to be hurried along by the nervous prefects. He gave one pushy young man a glare worthy of Heero Yuy himself before tripping him down a flight of moving stairs.

/Maybe you should 'get a bloody move on'!/ he thought derisively, /...asshat./

'Asshat' had been Duo's word, and Wufei berated himself for even thinking it, just as he berated himself for most of the things he had been thinking lately.

Wufei grumbled all the way up to Gryffendor tower, growled out the password when one of the prefects asked him to show that he had memorized it. He gave a guttural mutter when approached by one of the other boys who shared his dorm, thus deflecting any other friendly overtures, and fell into bed.

Where he stared up at the canopy for seven hours without a sign of fatigue.

Wufei tried closing his eyes and counting sheep, he tried deep breathing techniques, he tried going through the names of everyone he had ever known who had died in alphabetical order, surname first.

Nothing worked.

By the time four AM rolled around, Wufei gave up on sleep and crept silently down to the common room. The fire was banked, only the faintest glow from the coals casting a shadow across the room. Wufei seated himself in a comfortable armchair that happened to be placed right in front of an ornate chess board.

/It's been a long time since I got to play/ Wufei reminded himself, forcing himself not to think of the last time he _had _played; against Treize in the general's bedroom wearing nothing but a bed sheet and a frown of concentration.

"If you're going to play at bloody dark-o-clock then get your bloody arse moving!" Snapped a black knight from the board. Wufei jumped, not exactly used to games that insulted him, and began a solitary game.

Wufei quickly learned that playing chess by himself was not nearly as fun as it had been when he was a child. He told himself that it was because of his maturity and his advanced understanding of the game, it had nothing to do with the fact that he had become used to an opponent who was just as skilled and cunning as he was.

/I can't even enjoy my favorite game without thinking about him./ Wufei groused to himself.

"Bloody slow idiot." The king's knight complained.

"No! No! Take the Bishop!" a pawn shouted angrily.

Wufei decided he would much rather read a book.

He had gotten nearly halfway through his Defense textbook (Dangerous Creatures and How to Kill Them by Earnest Deatswish) when the other students began stirring in the rooms above him. He took his opportunity to leave for the dining hall without being noticed by his fellow students.

The first week of Wufei's time at Hogwarts proceeded in much the fashion as his first day. He spoke little more than a couple words to others in his house and did not volunteer any information in his classes unless specifically asked. He ate his breakfast early and his dinner late, thus avoiding any kind of in-meal conversation, and he avoided lunch altogether, preferring to spend his time in the library or in conversing with the old and lonely portraits that lined the halls.

In fact, it wasn't until Thursday morning that he had any real contact with his peers.

Thursday morning began with double potions, followed by advanced arithmancy (an elective) and then defense against the dark arts. Wufei arrived at the potions classroom long before any other Gryffendor and sat in the second row, slightly to the right. He attempted to choose the same seating place in nearly every class because it gave him the opportunity to be close to the professor's lecture without drawing any attention to himself.

Wufei had been sitting in his carefully chosen place for nearly ten minutes before the other students began filing in. Nearly all of the early students were Slytherin. They sat together in clumps as far away from him as possible. Wufei could hear a few giggles coming from a group of girls behind him.

Unlike the Slytherin students, the Gryffendor all rushed through the door at the very last minute, filling the room almost immediately. The chattering and giggling from the students around him seemed malicious in its intent. He knew at least some of them were talking about him, and could feel their eyes focusing on him from all directions. It made his battle-trained nerves tense.

"If you think there is something so interesting about Mr. Chang." Severus Snape said, appearing as if by... well, magic. "Then you should probably say it to him personally."

The room was immediately silent.

"That was not an idle suggestion," the professor continued, "Chang! Stand up so the class can see you."

Wufei felt the crushing gaze of the entire class, made worse by the fact that he had spent the last few days avoiding this very scenario.

"Sir?" He attempted to be as polite as possible.

"Who here has a question for Mr. Chang?" Snape demanded.

There was a long pause before one Gryffendor girl raised her hand, "Where are you from again?"

"The L5 space colony." Wufei responded as quickly as he could. He kept his back ramrod straight and his feet together as if reporting to a superior officer... or channeling Heero.

"The what?" another girl asked.

"It was a wizarding settlement built with muggle technology to function in space."

"So your not a muggle spy?" one Slytherin asked.

"No."

"Didn't they have schools on your planet?"

"Whats space like?"

"Are you single?"

"Are you related to Cho?"

"Do you like chocolate frogs or every flavor beans better?"

Wufei blinked at the sudden onset of questions, waiting for them to die down before answering any.

"I am not related to Cho Chang and I don't like sweets." With that, he sat down.

"Well" Snape said with a glower at the room in general, "That was just _fascinating_, I'm sure that you will all pass your OWLs now that you know so very much about Wufei Chang. If you don't mind I'd like to get down to the business of potions."

The rest of class went remarkably well, although Wufei never wanted to do anything like that ever again. He did have to admit to smiling (internally of course) a little when he heard Harry Potter comment that it was "bloody brilliant to have him picking on someone else for a change."

Wufei imagined that the other pilots would have liked his classmates, they tended to make friends even in the strangest situations, while he could only avoid people until they left him alone.

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The murmurs of the other students in Lupin's second hour DADA class were only marginally as abrasive as they had been the day before, Wufei was distracted from the annoying giggles of the girls behind him by the sense of apprehension and excitement. It was certainly a relief from the morning's barrage of questions. Wufei found himself almost looking forward to the class, if not the classmates, and to learning more about it's interesting instructor.

"Well." Lupin began, gazing across rows of desks and wands, "I'm sure you're all aware of my policies on textbooks in the first class of the year."

There was a murmur of laughter from the students, and Wufei heard quite a few excited mutters from those around him.

"So, I've decided to start the new school year with a pop quiz!"

A few of the students looked vaguely worried, but Wufei noticed that Potter and his friends were sharing grins and jokes as they shouldered their book bags and prepared to leave the room.

"If you'll follow me." Lupin instructed, leading the class into the hallway and towards the teacher's lounge.

The closer they got to their destination the more excitement and interest Wufei noticed among the students around him.

"I bet mine turns into a vampire!" one girl whispered (rather loudly) to her friend.

"Do you remember Snape's face last year?" Ron exclaimed to a boy Wufei vaguely recognized from his dorm.

"I'm n...n...not doing th...that again." The boy responded, "I'll find something else t...to be afraid of if it keeps him from taking off p...points!"

Lupin lead the class into the lounge and set them up in a wide semi-circle before regarding them all with a beaming smile. Wufei could easily see that this was a man who loved his position, and who was just as enthusiastic as his students about whatever was coming next.

"Who," Lupin began, "can tell me what a boggart is?"

Every hand in the room, save one, shot up into the air.

"It shows your worst fears," Lavender Brown answered when selected, her voice squeaking with excitement, "you use the _riddikulus _spell combined with laughter to banish them."

"Correct!" Lupin cheered, "and what do you think is behind this door?"

/That had to be a rhetorical question./ Wufei thought to himself as the entire class answered in unison.

Despite his irritation, Wufei found himself admiring the way Lupin infused the class with enthusiasm for their first day, it was... charming, he might even go so far as to say "cute".

/Treize couldn't stand children./

"I want all of you to think very hard about what you will do when it is your turn, because we are starting the demonstration just as soon as Mr. Potter finds his wand." Lupin announced.

Harry moved to the front of the crowd with a chuckle brandishing his wand and giving his friends a wink.

"Ready?" Lupin asked.

"Ready."

And he opened the door.

Immediately Wufei felt the life draining out of him. Faintly in the distance he could hear the rattle of gunfire and Meiran's voice as she lay dieing. He let out a shuddering breath and...

... Harry gave a cry of "Riddikulus" and the black-cloaked monster that had been approaching them was caught by a stiff breeze, which blew it's covering up over it's head to reveal hairy legs and a pair of women's underwear.

The class erupted in snickers and giggles, and Harry was replaced by a smaller girl who was afraid of insects.

/What am I afraid of?/ Wufei found himself thinking as he blatantly ignored the performance of his fellow students. Harry's dementor had given him a clue, to a certain extent, but he had fought through battles and death no longer scared him... Meiran had already died... Treize...

Treize had died as well, Wufei's family had left him alone, his home was gone.

/I have nothing left to fear./

"Mr. Chang."

/Everything I have ever feared has happened already/

"Mr. Chang."

/What will this monster become when it sees me?/ Wufei was momentarily concerned for those around him.

"Chang!"

"Yes sir?" Wufei looked up to see the eyes of the entire class and his teacher resting on him.

"You're the only one left."

/I am afraid of nothing./

"All right." Wufei stepped up to the front of the class, towards the boggart which had been hovering as a small silver ball for the past minute. It shimmered as he approached and he braced himself for some horrific remnant of the war that had slipped his mind.

... And he found himself looking into the eyes of his greatest fear.

"Treize." He breathed softly. The fact that he _knew _it was a boggart and not truly his lover was all that kept him from throwing himself at the apparition. It looked like Treize. It was holding itself slightly higher on the right hip the way Treize did when he wasn't paying attention, one hand resting on it's stomach as if Treize had just enjoyed an especially delicious meal. A few strands of hair had fallen out of place and were being pushed around by the draft.

There were scratches on his boots from where he liked to kick them against the leg of his chair.

Wufei would have looked around the room for answers if he weren't so captivated by the familiar tilt of Treize's smile. The faint scent of roses drifted into Wufei's nose.

"I'm not afraid of this." He said in confusion, "I would _never _be afraid of him... I..."

The class was silent around him.

"Chang, are you alright?" Lupin asked quietly, Wufei didn't even turn his head to respond.

"I'm not afraid." He insisted, although his hands were beginning to shake.

The boggart gave a wider smile, the one that Wufei associated with brandy and roses and silk, and leaned in as if to whisper a secret.

It whispered so quietly that Wufei was sure he was the only one to hear, however, it's voice rang out in Wufei's mind like a peal of thunder, in an exact replica of Treize's voice.

"Whore." The Treize-thing leaned in so that it's lips brushed Wufei's ear.

"What?!" Wufei squeaked.

"I called you a whore" Treize -The boggart responded in the same polite drawl that haunted Wufei's dreams, "Which you are, and a traitor, and a liar, and a murderer."

"I..." Wufei's hands really were shaking now. He blinked back tears.

"How could I ever have loved you?" Treize continued in the same cold, academic voice that he used to command armies. "One doesn't love a pillow, or a chair, or a piece of equipment."

Wufei felt a sharp pain in his chest as he fought back tears. /I won't cry in front of these wizards/ he thought to himself, even as his mind brought back images of the times he had told Treize he loved him. Treize looking away, or laughing, or moving in to kiss him without a word.

"I wonder if you spread you legs for anyone with state secrets or if you only do it for those you plan to kill."

Wufei felt the world spin on it's axis, not hearing the professor's orders to cast the spell.

"That's not true." He whispered desperately. Lupin was behind him, telling him to use to use the spell and banish the boggart but Wufei was unable to do anything but stare into Treize's cold eyes.

"Not true? What is this then?" And Treize lifted his hand from where it had been resting on his stomach to reveal a gaping hole, the blood slowly seeping through his tailored white shirt around it's edge. The class gasped. One girl let out a thin scream, they hadn't heard a word that the boggart had said, but the viscera falling to the floor from his open wound.

"A love tap? A valentine's gift perhaps."

Wufei choked and Treize laughed darkly, "Maybe you're simply destined to kill the ones you love."

Some strange analytical part of Wufei's mind that had survived the war reminded him that Treize had not, in fact, died from a gut wound but had been blown to smithereens in the depths of space. That his body had been in so many pieces that they could not be recovered.

Those thoughts did not help at all as blood oozed out of the hole and onto the floor. Wufei could see his former lovers' intestines spilling over the edge.

Wufei didn't shout, didn't cry, didn't speak a word to the figure in front of him. He didn't know what to do, casting the spell and changing the boggart seemed impossible, and Wufei wasn't sure if he wanted the apparition to disappear. Wufei was loathe to give up a solid, real-life image of Treize, even if it was confirming his worst fears, that the general had never loved him nor forgiven him for his part in the war. He stood, frozen, unable to act.

Before he knew it, Lupin was pushing him out of the way, and shouting the spell, forcing a bright pink moon back into it's place in the closet. And Treize was gone.


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: So, Here we are with the next chapter... I feel like I'm moving a bit to fast with this but it's the way it came out so I suppose I'll just have to be happy with it. Thanks to everyone for your reviews and support!

Please remember that I have no Beta so any typos or plot holes should be pointed out so I can fix them ^_^

"Speaking"

/Thoughts/

Magic and The Dragon: Chapter 5

There was something about Treize Khushrenada's office that brought out the sensualist in Wufei. Perhaps it was because the room was attached to Treize's lavish bedroom and was decorated in the same elaborate fashion. Perhaps it was because Treize used it as a lounge as often as for it's original purpose, the room was home to Treize's personal library, his marble chess set, and his collection of fine liqueurs.

The office was where Wufei had met Treize in person for the first time (on an information-gathering mission gone wrong), and it was the last place that Wufei ever saw Treize alive. Wufei could remember a time when setting foot in that room would arouse him more than any thought or sound or smell simply because of the memories that it held for him.

He could remember drinking bourbon from his lover's glass as they lounged, nude, in front of the fire. He had kissed Treize for the first time in the large chair near the door where the General had cornered him on that fateful first meeting.

He had also spent an entire afternoon on his knees under Treize's desk, pleasuring his lover while the older man met with advisers and underlings. Wufei had been amazed by Treize's ability to orgasm without letting a sign of it show on his face, but it made for some very interesting days and Wufei would never be able to look Lady Une in the eyes again.

Despite the fact that it was on enemy territory, Wufei had always associated that particular room with a feeling of security and a sleepy sort of comfort. However, on this particular occasion Wufei stood in the middle of a once familiar space feeling nothing but a growing sense of horror.

The chess table had fallen, shattered pieces lay on the ground as if they were the causalities of war. The chair had fallen on the ground, two legs broken, and the carefully arranged bottles of expensive liqueur had been smashed. Ice, somehow Wufei knew it was the freezing effects of deep space, was beginning to crawl up the walls. The huge copy of Tale of Two Cities had already shattered, frozen pieces of it's pages lay all over the shelves and the floor.

Treize was behind the desk.

Wufei could not say how he knew this, but he was absolutely sure that he would find Treize behind the desk. He tried to force himself away but his feet moved towards the large mahogany desk despite him. He tried closing his eyes, but the remained focused on the sights in front of him. /Don't look!/ he told himself desperately, /Don't!/

Treize was behind the desk. His body so cold and blue that frost was beginning to form on his skin and on the surface of his eyes. He had been bleeding at some point, from the stomach and the mouth, but the blood had long since frozen solid.

Wufei screamed, trying frantically to escape but unable to move, unable to look away from Treize's glassy dead eyes which were cracking from the cold. The room shook, everything in it shattering to pieces as Wufei screamed and screamed and...

...Woke in his bed in Gryffendor tower, shaking and sweating and freezing because most of his blankets had fallen off the edge of the bed.

Wufei shuddered, running a hand through his hair and pulling himself out of bed.

There would be no more sleeping tonight.

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3:45 am, four days after the boggart incident, found Wufei sitting in a stairwell near the library. He hadn't slept more than a few hours in the past three days, his original insomnia compounded by the memory of the boggart. Wufei couldn't get the image, or the words, out of his head.

/It's just a stupid dark monster/ Wufei told himself /not some message from the grave./

Nonetheless, something about what the boggart had said disturbed Wufei beyond anything he could have imagined... not to mention the fact that each time he closed his eyes he could feel his lover's organs falling into his hands and onto the floor.

He had been unable to eat breakfast for the last two days because the sight of sausage made him queasy. /Weak!/ he told himself /how many men have you killed? How many lovers have you left alone? You can't even withstand one fucking illusion!/

But the memory of Treize's blood would not leave his mind.

And so Wufei found himself unable to sleep, wandering the halls and avoiding the caretaker's cat until breakfast. The very early hours of the morning were cold and lonely, although he tried to convince himself that they were actually meditative and peaceful. The stone walls in the dungeons would chill to the point that Wufei could scrape frost off the walls.

It was nearly four am and he _wasn't_ shivering in the stairwell when something very hard and very lanky happened to fall down the stairs and land on top of him.

"Wha-? Ouch!"

"Fuck! I mean... Are you all right?"

Wufei looked up at the man on top of him as he struggled to get free. He was wearing a pair of battered muggle jeans and a t-shirt that looked older than the person wearing it. A person that Wufei was coming to recognize despite his unusual dress.

"Professor Lupin?"

"Ah... Chang. I'm terribly sorry." Lupin quickly straightened himself out and offered a hand to help Wufei up.

"I should have been looking where I was going." Wufei admitted as he dusted himself off.

"Well I shouldn't have fallen down the stairs." Lupin chuckled, "What are you doing out this late anyway? You do know that students aren't allowed out after curfew."

"I had a little trouble sleeping."

"I see..." There was a brief moment of awkward silence in which Wufei wondered if the professor was going to punish him or just stare at him for the rest of the night.

"Do you usually dress like a muggle on your time off?" Wufei asked.

"Er... No! No of course not. I was just out. In London."

"Professor, are you _drunk_?" The other man, on closer inspection, was not exactly steady on his feet and appeared to be having a little trouble stringing a sentence together.

"Me? No! Of course not. Drunk! As if I would be drunk..." As he spoke the professor began to list to the side, almost falling before Wufei lunged to catch him.

"All right, I might be a little tipsy."

Wufei snorted, "Just a bit."

"In that case Mr. Chang, I promise not to punish you for being out after hours if you promise to help me to my office."

"Wouldn't you rather go to your rooms sir?" Wufei asked as he helped Remus stand and move down the hall.

"There's a secret passage behind the chalkboard."

"I see."

"You wouldn't use that information against me, would you Chang? I know if Siri... If my friends and been aware of those passages as students they would have used them mercilessly."

"Of course not, sir."

By the time they reached Lupin's office the professor had sobered up enough to move on his own, but Wufei found himself unwilling to return to his bed (or his solitary wanderings).

"Would you care for a cup of tea as thanks?"

Wufei blinked in surprise, but found himself agreeing amicably. The two men were soon seated at the desk with a pot of tea and a tray of chocolate biscuits. It was both surreal and surprisingly enjoyable for the former pilot.

"You know, I did want to talk to you about your boggart during the first lesson." Lupin said as he poured himself a second cup. He had been able to cast a sobering charm once he was sure that he wouldn't do himself damage.

"Hn." Wufei focused his eyes on his biscuit, not wanting to discuss that humiliating event any further than he had with his dorm mates, meaning not at all.

"You must admit that it wasn't the normal sort of thing one would expect a boy your age to be afraid of. Who was he?"

"No one important." Wufei muttered.

"Now that is quite obviously a lie."

"I..." Wufei swallowed slowly. "He was..."

"It's alright if you can't tell me right now." Lupin told him with a warm smile, "But I would like to know some day."

"Hn."

"In the mean time I suggest you head back to bed." The professor gave him a warm smile that made Wufei feel more than a little uncomfortable. Why was this man being so kind? Were to biscuits drugged?

Wufei snorted in laughter at his own paranoid thoughts.

"Oh, and Chang?"

"Yes sir?" Wufei asked, turning from the door to see Lupin hesitating near the chalkboard.

"The next time you can't sleep, come visit me. I would hate to see you get detention for a little late-night walk."

Wufei smiled. "Yes sir."

Wufei found his way back to the gryffendor common room with little trouble, although there was one point where he had to double back in order to avoid Mrs. Norris. As he approached the portrait hole he became aware of other voices, whispers, echoing through the hall. He paused outside th entrance, looking around for the source of the sound and finding nothing.

"Hello?"

Behind him Wufei heard someone cry "Merlin!" and another female voice saying "Ouch! Harry!"

"Potter? Granger?"

"Shit! Uh... Hi Wufei." Harry's head suddenly appeared, floating right beside Wufei, looking sheepish.

"Is there a reason I'm only seeing your disembodied head?" Wufei asked.

"Er..." There was a brief shuffling and the rest of Harry's body, along with Ron and Hermione, was revealed. "It's an invisibility cloak. Sorry."

Wufei rolled his eyes and turned back to the portrait, giving the password and walking in to the common room.

He refrained from speaking to the trio as they headed to their respective beds, although he did hear Ron mutter softly to his friends: "What was _he_ doing out anyway?"

Wufei decided he didn't have time for their childish games. He went up to his bed an managed to get a full two hours of sleep before his alarm rang for breakfast.

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"You haven't read Shakespeare?!"

"I studied pre-colonial Chinese literature, not English playwrights."

It was a little past midnight, two weeks after Wufei's collision with his professor in the hallway and the former pilot was once again seated in Remus' office with a cup of tea and a snack. Wufei had found that Remus was almost as much of an insomniac as he was, and had begun looking forward to their late night meetings. In fact, he had spent a least an hour with the professor every night since Remus had made the suggestion that he visit when he couldn't sleep.

Wufei found that he and Remus had a great number of things in common, from a love of literature to a hatred for divinations. Their late-night meetings were one of the few places where Wufei truly felt as though he were with a peer. Remus didn't treat him as though he were a child, nor did he act as though his position as professor gave him more power in the relationship. Wufei was slowly beginning to consider Remus a friend.

/And when did he stop being 'Lupin' and start being 'Remus'?/ Wufei asked himself. No answer was forthcoming.

"Hold on." Remus told him, rummaging in his desk, "I have just the book for you."

"If it's Romeo and Juliet, I don't want to read it."

"Romeo and Juliet! Never." Remus snorted, pulling a battered paperback from deep within the desk drawer, "You, Mr. Chang, are far too serious and you require a good comedy to brighten that dark demeanor."

Wufei looked at the book that had been presented to him, "Twelfth Night?"

"Mistaken identities! Betrayal! Crossdressing! What more could you ask for?"

The professor's eyes sparkled with an infectious humor. Wufei found himself grinning at the man's overwhelming enthusiasm.

"I take it this is your favorite."

"It is." Lupin said, "And it's so very rare that I get to share it with anyone since few wizards are interested in muggle fiction."

"Shakespeare wasn't a wizard?"

"No. He was as nonmagical as they come, which makes his genius all the more amazing."

Wufei admired Remus's passion. It reminded him more than anything of the way Treize had looked when discussing a favorite brand of wine or piece of music. The look of someone who was passionate about life. /Although perhaps not so passionate about _you_/ Wufei reminded himself.

"Are you alright?" Remus asked, noticing Wufei's sudden change in mood.

"I'm fine." Wufei told him, "Just remembering some things I'd rather not."

"Anything I can help with?"

Wufei reminded himself that Remus /Lupin dammit!/ was just playing the part of the caring teacher, and not actually interested in his troubles... nonetheless...

"Do you believe that two people can love each other?" Wufei found himself asking.

Remus blinked, "I'm not sure I'm the one you should be talking to Wufei. Is there a girl you like? She isn't a slytherin is she?"

"No! Dear god no! There is most definitely _not _a girl that I like."

"Is it a boy then?"

"I..." Wufei choked on his own words, "I may not exactly be attracted to women..."

"I appreciate your honesty and your trust." Remus said with a sad smile, "It's very hard to admit that to a professor."

"A professor?" Wufei asked, "I didn't admit it to myself until two months after Tr.... For a long time."

"I see." Remus didn't press the issue of Wufei's slip, "Well, to answer your question, I do think two people can love each other. More importantly, I think that two _men_ can love each other."

/But can a man love a_ boy_?/ the voice in Wufei's head that sounded an awful lot like Treize chimed in.

"It will be hard though, especially in wizarding society." Remus continued, "The sort of secrecy that is common in these relationships are often what tears them apart." A deep sadness appeared on the professor's face, making the premature lines on his face all the more distinct.

"Since you shared with me, I figure it can't hurt to share with you." Remus told him, "That night, when I fell on you..."

"You were drunk." Wufei reminded him.

"Yes. I was drunk. It was an anniversary. My anniversary."

Remus smiled the sad smile that Wufei saw on his face so very often. It made him look tired.

"I met Sirius as a student at Hogwarts. We were inseparable. He was my best friend."

"He was you lover." Wufei murmured.

"Yes. We were together for all of seventh year and the three years after that before... circumstances intervened. We never told anyone, I suppose we were too afraid.

"Sirius was sent to prison. He was framed, but I didn't know and I... I believed that he could have betrayed us. It wasn't until last year that I saw him again and discovered that he was innocent."

Remus rubbed at his eyes, looking more tired than ever before.

"I never got the chance to tell him that I was sorry, that I still loved him. He died. That night was the anniversary of the day we met.

"I don't even know why I'm saying this to a student." Remus said with a bitter laugh.

"It's all right." Wufei told him, "I understand. I know."

Remus snorted, "You're so young Wufei." _and so naïve_, was left unsaid.

"No." Wufei insisted, wanting desperately to share the pain that he and Remus had in common, "I _know_. His name was Treize."

"What?"

"His name was Treize. He died. I killed him."

Without another word Wufei stood and left, almost running back to his bed in gryffendor towers. /Why would you tell him that?!/ he berated himself /fool!/

Wufei closed himself off behind the curtains of his bed and slept. Dreaming of Remus's faceless lover and Treize's frozen corpse.


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